Since winning the middleweight crown on Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Diego Sanchez has been one of UFC’s biggest stars.

Sanchez (24-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) seems to always be in the hunt, but thus far in his career, “The Dream” (formerly “The Nightmare”) hasn’t been able to get over that hump and win a title. His one opportunity, a lightweight title fight against B.J. Penn at UFC 107, remains the only stoppage loss of his career when a cut was deemed too deep for him to continue in the fifth round.

Sanchez has bounced back and forth between lightweight and welterweight, but he returned to 155 pounds earlier this year after three straight “Fight of the Night” performances at 170.

The result was far from perfect. Sanchez missed weight, making the fight a 158-pound catchweight bout in Japan. Then he had just enough to take a split decision from Takanori Gomi – a fight that most major media scored for Gomi, including some who gave the Japanese star all three rounds.

But a win is a win, and next month at UFC 166, Sanchez will try to win his second straight and fourth in five outings when he meets former Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez in Houston.

It’s a fight Sanchez is glad to have. But as he tells it, he’s just glad for any fight after what he put himself through.

In the video above, hear Sanchez talk about his issues with substances, what they did to his fighting career, and a Ponzi scheme that wiped out his bank account. It all set him on a path to what he believes is his current road to redemption.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?